This invention relates to a stylus for use with a digitizer tablet or like apparatus, and in particular such a stylus provided with a side control for generating what is known as a Z-axis signal.
In my prior co-pending application, Ser. No. 07/436,196, whose contents are hereby incorporated by reference, I describe and claim a stylus having an analog side switch, operable by the user, to provide an output signal which continuously varies over a given range in response to user-applied pressure or force. As is well known, a stylus in cooperation with a conventional digitizer tablet generates signals representing X-Y coordinate pairs of the location of the stylus with respect to the tablet working surface. It was also known to provide a pressure-responsive transducer, inside the stylus housing, coupled to the stylus tip. The user, by controlling the stylus tip pressure on the tablet, could also cause the outputting of a Z-axis signal which, depending upon the tablet electronics and software, could be interpreted as, for example, the width or color or other attribute of a line, or as the dimension of a screen object in the Z-direction. My prior application describes use of a finger-actuated stylus side control coupled to a Hall-effect transducer for controlling the magnitude of the Z-axis signal.